


thunder like cannonfire, lightning like being alive

by grainjew



Category: One Piece
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Thunderstorms, me gesturing at the found family trope: yes thank you please give me a monthly subscription, sibling content..... the best kind of content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-06 07:56:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18846850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: Ace and his brothers, stuck inside during a summer thunderstorm.“I’mbored,” says Sabo eventually.“Your problem,” says Ace right back, even though he’s also bored.“I canmakeit your problem,” threatens Sabo out of habit.Ace turns around, shakes his nose and his hair out like Dadan coming in from a storm to get Sabo all wet, and turns back to the window.“I see,” says Sabo. “Jerk.”





	thunder like cannonfire, lightning like being alive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).



> some asl fluff for connie’s birthday present… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL PARTNER IN CRIME ILU LOTS IM SO GLAD WE’RE FRIENDS!!!!! <3 <3 <3

They’re in the treehouse. Ace has his nose out the window to watch the sky, which is raining terribly, like someone picked up half an ocean and dropped it right on Mount Colubo. Luffy is behind him somewhere, pulling back his fingers and letting them snap into place to hear the weird _crack_ noise the rubber makes, and last Ace checked Sabo was lying on the floor staring at the ceiling.

Rain patters down, _taptaptaptap_. Ace’s nose gets wet.

“I’m _bored_ ,” says Sabo eventually.

“Your problem,” says Ace right back, even though he’s also bored.

“I can _make_ it your problem,” threatens Sabo out of habit.

Ace turns around, shakes his nose and his hair out like Dadan coming in from a storm to get Sabo all wet, and turns back to the window.

“I see,” says Sabo. “Jerk.”

Thunder booms in the distance, like a giant slamming its hands down on a drum as big as the sky. Ace hasn’t seen any lightning yet, but he’s watching for it. Lightning’s cool.

Sabo complains about being wet, behind him.

“I’m _bored_ ,” says Luffy.

Okay, now _that_ is Ace’s problem.

He turns away from the window for real this time — shaking his hair out onto Sabo again, for good measure — and watches Luffy turning his hat over and over in his hands. “Hm.”

“Tell me a story!” says Luffy. “About how it’s gonna be when we’re pirates someday!”

Ace grins. That’s Luffy’s favorite topic, but conveniently it’s also Ace’s favorite topic, and Sabo’s too. They’ve been over it lots and lots before, but that never stops Luffy asking, and it’s not like Ace minds telling him. Or making up something to tell him, usually.

“In the future,” he starts, “when we’re adults…”

“…we’ll have a super big and super fast ship!” interrupts Luffy.

“Well, I’ll be the captain,” corrects Ace. “So technically I’ll have the ship.”

Sabo nods gravely, earlier irritation with Ace forgotten in the sweep of the story. “I’ll be the navigator, of course!”

“Wait,” says Luffy, and he looks so heartbroken Ace is terrified he’ll start crying, “but _I_ want to be captain!”

Rain patters hard outside as they all think.

“We can be co-captains,” offers Ace after a moment, generously and only a little begrudgingly.

“Okay!” says Luffy, brightening immediately, and Ace feels something glow in his chest under the glow of his little brother’s smile.

“So we’ll have a super big and cool and fast ship,” says Sabo, getting them back on topic, sort of. “And we’ll go all over the Blues—”

“No!” interrupts Luffy again. Ace tries not to sigh. “We gotta go to the Grand Line, or I can’t be Pirate King!”

“ _I’ll_ be Pirate King, you mean,” says Ace.

“You’re gonna be co-captains,” says Sabo. “Wouldn’t that make you both Pirate King?”

Ace stops in the middle of opening his mouth. That’s a good point.

Luffy frowns, though, like it makes no sense, and thunder booms outside to accentuate the look. “Dunno,” he mutters dubiously, sticking out his lower lip. Then he dismisses the topic with a wave of his tiny arm and adds, “But we still gotta go to the Grand Line! Not the Blues.”

Ace grins helplessly at Sabo. “Guess we gotta go to the Grand Line,” he says.

“Guess so,” says Sabo.

Luffy crosses his arms. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Guess so,” says Sabo, and crosses his arms back.

“Guess we are,” says Ace. He puts his arms behind his head, because honestly that’s cooler than crossing them.

Luffy pouts so hard Ace is afraid his face’ll fall off.

Rain slams down, like a million really heavy ants walking on the roof.

“You know, Sabo,” says Luffy, out of nowhere. “I’m really glad your parents are terrible!”

Ace’s brain tangles into a knot.

Luffy never talks about birth family. Ace honestly isn’t sure he even realizes it’s a thing at all, except Shitty Gramps, who doesn’t count. And he _especially_ doesn’t talk about Ace and Sabo’s parents.

Sabo says, obviously trying to keep his face neutral for Luffy’s sake, “Um, why?”

Luffy smiles big and wide as the sea is big and wide and says, “Because if they were nice, you wouldn’t be my brother!”

Ace blinks. He notices Sabo gaping like a beached fish, which is pretty funny, but he’s too busy blinking to laugh.

Sabo opens and closes his mouth a few times, and then manages, “Well, I guess I’m glad they’re terrible too then?”

Luffy keeps going, like he didn’t hear Sabo at all. “And I’m glad Ace’s mom an’ dad are dead, and that Shitty Gramps is shitty, cause otherwise Ace wouldn’t be my brother either!”

“I—” says Ace, and then keeps blinking. He’s pretty sure he’s not happy his mom is dead! His — biological father — is different, and Shitty Gramps is just Shitty Gramps. But his mother should have lived. He realizes he’s frowning, and blinks, and tries to stop doing both of those things. “I’m glad we’re brothers too,” he tries. “Weren’t we talking about ships?”

Sabo leans over and whispers, “Coward _._ ”

Ace takes the insult with a scowl, and then pointedly looks away from Sabo. “We’ll be the richest and scariest and coolest pirates in the whole world,” he says. “They’ll put huge bounties on us! And the Marines will all run away!”

“Even Gramps?” asks Luffy, wide-eyed.

Ace nods emphatically. “ _Especially_ Shitty Gramps.”

“He’ll know exactly how strong we are because of having raised us!” adds Sabo. “So he’ll _especially_ know he has to run away!”

“And if he doesn’t, we’ll shoot him with our cannons!” says Ace.

“Bam!” says Luffy, shoving a fist at the ceiling. “Just like the thunder!”

Ace laughs under his breath and says, “Yeah!”

A gust of wind sends rain scattering in through the window. Most of it hits the back of Ace’s neck.

“Weren’t you watching for lightning?” says Sabo. He takes his hat off and throws it into a corner.

“Yeah, ‘till everyone started being bored,” says Ace.

Sabo rolls his eyes. “You hogging the window is _why_ we got bored,” he says.

“Yeah!” says Luffy, which means Ace is totally unfairly being ganged up on.

He makes a face and says, “Was not.”

“Were too,” says Sabo. He gets up and moves over next to Ace, looking out the window, so Ace swivels himself back around to face the rain again. “You better share.”

“I woulda shared if you’d _asked,_ ” says Ace, as Luffy presses up against his other side so they can all see out. “Don’t blame me for you not asking!”

Sabo opens his mouth to argue, and Luffy does too, but then they’re all blinded by a flash of lightning that snakes its way down from the sky like a drop of water through dust, and anything anyone has to say is forgotten in favor of holding their breath.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three…”

“Four….

Thunder _crashes._

“Four miles!” crows Sabo, as Luffy falls laughing on top of Ace.

“Lightning’s so cool!” says Ace’s little brother. Ace has to agree. Lightning’s really cool.

(And watching lightning with his brothers, where nobody can touch them or hear them or see them as they collapse on each other, sopping and breathless — well, that’s even cooler. But right now Ace doesn’t really feel like saying that aloud.)

**Author's Note:**

> they are.... children. and i love them


End file.
